Zypid

I pulled into the Wild Horse camp grounds around 3 in the morning on Saturday. The next day was really interesting to see and hear almost every single car blasting some Tool CD. As you walked down the grounds, it was kind of like a Tool museum. Hey, there's Opiate, there's Third Eye, there's Lateralus, there's Aenema, etc.

As I soon found out that it was somewhat unfortunate that I had a floor seat (I had no idea there was a screen on the floor until I read the reviews here). I was off to the left and periodically had a big pillar in my way of Maynard and I couldn't really get a good view of any of the screens. I was eventually able to jump up and over a row and that improved my view a bit.

I went with a group of six guys and none of us had heard of Isis. We asked people around the campground and no one else seemed to have heard of them either. The running joke became, "Hey, does anyone know that other band that's playing with Isis tonight?" or "I came here to listen to Isis. Who the fuck is Tool?" Anyway, I think Isis tore it up and I'm definitely going to look into getting my hands on some of their CDs.

The wait inbetween Isis and Tool was brutal. It was almost an entire hour. You could feel the tension in the crowd, especially when we started cheering every time anything happened on stage. We all cheered when Danny's drums were set up, we all cheered, when the guy fixing the lights came down from his ladder, we all cheered, etc.

Finally the lights went out and we knew it was business. Tool came on stage and we all freaked out as they opened with Stinkfist. There was an added bit in the middle of the song that completely rocked my world. They did this with Schism, too.

I think it was after Schism (or maybe it was Opiate) that the band put down their instruments and sat on the front of the stage drinking water. At some moment I realized everything was brighter and I looked behind me (I was in the 22nd row) and I saw at least half of the Gorge waving around lighters. It was a fucking sea of flame and it was fucking amazing.

Other than hearing a rumor about them ending with Aenema, I had no idea what the setlist was going to be. I had decided before that if I had heard Pushit, Third Eye, or Lateralus I could die happy. When I realized they were going to start playing Lateralus I flipped out and jumped on top of the folding chairs that were on the floor. Listening to Lateralus always gave me dark and black images in mind, but the screens and lights were all flashing white. It was like a new and improved version of the song to me.

When the laser show finally came on to full blast, you could see one of the lasers hitting the fucking mountains past the Columbia River behind the Gorge. Fucking WOW.

I got down off my chair for Vicarious, thinking that there's no way they can end a concert with a first song from one of their CDs. After Maynard told us to peace out and I heard "Hey... hey... hey... hey..." I once again proceeded to flip out and jump on the folding chairs.

Then came the moment I will probably never live down for the rest of my life. After Aenema ended in a crash of Hey's and Danny Carry, the members of the band put their instruments down and Danny proceeded to throw his drumsticks out into the crowd. He then picked up two drum heads, handed one to Adam, and they both threw them into the crowd like frisbees.

I watched the one Adam threw go far to my right as I thought, "Damn, that's not even fucking close to me." Just then it hooked hard to its right and was coming right at me. I was the only one still standing on the chairs in my vicinity so I leaned over as it got closer and closer. I reached my hand out to grab it and it BOUNCED OFF MY FUCKING HAND BEFORE I COULD GET MY FINGERS AROUND IT. The guy behind me ended up getting it. I got him to show it to me as we were walking back and Danny had even signed it. Gods dammit all to hell--I should have jumped for it. I would have landed in a pile of people and folding chairs, but I still would have had it.

Anyway, overall the show was one of the most amazing experiences of my life (it was my first Tool show). I'll always be able to remember Maynard doing his lizard-dance thing or the way he spiralled his hand above his head during the later songs.